Monday, July 23, 2012

This north Indiana outfit ruled the roost in the “Michiana” region in the mid-’70s, attracting huge crowds whenever they played live. Often compared with Led Zeppelin, this 5-piece outfit rocked the area with a tight and raw sound that combined in-your-face hard rock with undisguised psychedelic tendencies and lashings of fuzz.

It must be said the boys didn’t do themselves any favours by issuing their only known album with a cover reminiscent of a Journey photo shoot, but regardless of their dubious hair and sense of dress, Magi certainly deserved more than the obscurity into which they ultimately lapsed.

Win Or Lose, recorded at Uncle Dirty’s Sound Machine studios in Michigan in 1976, and which boasts a series of solid songs propelled by a tight rhythm section and some more-than respectable vocals, is always reviewed enthusiastically: “superb heavy rock fuzz spectacular with some psych feel” “ rare Led Zep-like masterpiece of killer rock ” “hard ro c k i n ’ with a psych edge that makes it totally unique” In another place or time this band could have been huge.

As it is, we only have this one incredibly rare album to judge them by, but based on the evidence, Magi definitely receives an unqualified thumbs-up. About a decade later Tom Stevens became one of the Paisley Underground's most active musicians, forming the Long Ryders and been a part of Danny and Dusty's outfit.